you understand there was a huge gender gap for democrats in this last elections. republicans have to look at that and say, okay, we have to get something done. but let me add this. when peter hart actually laid out on the table here are the choices you have to make on spending and here are the choices you have to make on taxes, they had a little bit more difficult time in deciding what to do. so they began to realize the extent of the difficulty in cutting any real deal. >> yeah. not belittling the difficulty. these are tough, tough issues. but the stakes are really, really important right now. there is a little wiggle room. >> yeah. >> as far as the president and the democrats are concerned when it comes to raising tax rates for the wealthy. >> sure. the president's been very careful not to say we have to go up to the clinton-era 39.6%. he hasn't used that number. and so he's -- you know -- >> right now it's 35%. >> right now it's 35%. so if you look in the middle, okay, 37% is a real possibility. but here's the caveat. john boehner, the house speaker, cannot tak